LA County Sheriff says DNA backlog search stopped

LOS ANGELES 
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says it no longer has the staff or funds to continue analyzing its decades-long backlog of DNA evidence from thousands of rape and sexual assault cases.

In a report issued last week, Sheriff Lee Baca said federal grant money will cover only four or five more months of testing, and state funds are uncertain after that.

Baca has said he needs $4.5 million to clear the backlog.

A new effort to clear the backlog began in November, when it was revealed that more than 4,000 sexual assault kits sat untested in county storage.